


Welcome to Your New Life

by space_ghoul



Category: Big Bang (Band)
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Mentions of past drug use, Romance, Single Parent!Seunghyun
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-04-24
Updated: 2016-04-24
Packaged: 2018-06-04 03:05:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,867
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6638749
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/space_ghoul/pseuds/space_ghoul
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When a scandal cuts Jiyong's career as an idol short, he's certain his life is over. In a way, he's right.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Welcome to Your New Life

**Author's Note:**

> This is ESSENTIALLY a song fic for Welcome to Your New Life by Alohaha. I even considered setting it in Hawaii, but I know nothing about Hawaii, so I settled for California. As you do. If you haven't heard the song, I highly recommend you give it a listen! 
> 
> This fic contains references to Jiyong's marijuana 'scandal' — most of the characters in this fic treat it as if it isn't a big deal. Because it's set in SoCal, and literally no one gives a shit about pot here. Regardless, if the idea of that makes you uncomfortable, you might not enjoy this fic. 
> 
> Otherwise... enjoy! I can't believe I'm starting ANOTHER chaptered GTOP fic without finishing the first one, but I'll try my best to balance the two.

" _Welcome to your new life,_  
_Dancing in the light that slips through the blinds._  
_Welcome to your new life,_  
_Is it the paradise, baby, you hoped you'd find?_ "

—

Jiyong's life was in ruins. Call him naive, but he had thought — assumed, really — that he'd be able to bounce back from his scandal, that all it would take was a good single, something invasively catchy, to convince all of South Korea that he was worthy of their forgiveness. Now, with his scandal still raging on and a flop of an album in his discography, he learns that not everything can be solved with good music. 

Can you blame him though? Throughout his entire life, music had always been the answer. It was his life, the air he breathed and the blood flowing through his veins. Did he not have the right to feel a little bitter, a little betrayed. 

Not that it matters. Still waters run deep, and the betrayal continues. First, from his fans, who are quick to act as if they hated him from the beginning, letting his lackluster album sales speak for itself; next, from the very company who made him the household name he is today, YG Entertainment, who decide to cut their loses and release Jiyong from his contract; and finally, from his friends, who slowly make less and less time for him, naturally drifting away until all he has left is his now-former collaborator and second half of the duo GDYB, Dong Youngbae.

Music betraying him is really the least of his concerns as he lays alone in his apartment, jobless and hated the whole country over and wonders how he's going to make ends meet after his savings deplete, how he'll be able to afford the luxuries he's grown more than used to in his years of being an idol. 

A few bitter, angry tears roll down his cheeks as he thinks of all the idols who _have_ bounced back, who were involved in scandals worse than his own but who have managed to maintain their fanbases, and thus, their careers. What did they do right? What has he done wrong?

Jiyong lays in bed for what feels like a decade, room darkened aside from a few long beams of light that stream in through the cracks in the blinds. He wishes the room was as dark as his mood, but he's too depressed to get up.

He continues to lay motionless even as he hears his front door opening, though he does silently pray that the intruder is kind enough to kill him before they steal his collection of designer shoes. His bedroom door opens, and for once he thinks his prayers have been answered.

"You are fucking disgusting."

Jiyong has never been more dissapointed to hear Youngbae's voice in his entire life. "I was hoping you were a crazy saesang fan, out for my blood," he mutters into his pillow. 

Youngbae ignores him, taking long strides across the room to open the blinds fully, letting sunlight flood in. Jiyong squints. "You have been sulking for what, two? Three days? Have you even bathed?"

He groans in response, until an idea hits him. "You're a genius, Youngbae — I could drown myself." He means to sound more excited, to really sell his self-pity, but it comes off just as weak as anything else he's saying and it falls flat. He probably should have eaten at some point, but that would be counterproductive to his quest to dissolve and become one with his mattress.

Youngbae rolls his eyes, unsurprisingly unfazed. _Jerk_. "Get your ass out of bed and into the shower, we're getting lunch." When Jiyong makes no move to stand, his already cold expression drops into a glare and raises his voice a little. "Now!"

Jiyong scrambles out of bed, mumbling his 'okay, okay's as he gathers some cleans clothes and scurries into the safety of the bathroom. As he turns on the shower, he can hear the sound of the other tidying up his bedroom, and he wonders who exactly Youngbae became his mom. At the very least, he's as intimidating as her.

—

The shower does a good job of washing the sweat from his skin, but it surprisingly fails to cleanse him of his disgusting mood or self loathing, so he marks it down as pointless in the back of his mind. When he steps out, his room is slightly less chaotic then in was before, and Youngbae is sat on the edgy of his now-neatly made bed, tapping away at his phone. _Probably business_ , Jiyong reminds himself. 

Youngbae wasn't dropped from the label, but they did insist that he rebrand himself before he makes a comeback. That means no more GDYB, no more Youngbae period — from now on, he was to go by Taeyang. It was clear to Jiyong that he wasn't happy about the changes, if his expression was anything to go by. He has the decency to not complain about it to his unemployed friend, however, so he could never know for sure. Either way, he wishes a new stagename and some minor rebranding was all it took for him. 

"Unfortunately, you can't drown yourself in a shower. Trust me, I tried," is how Jiyong announces his arrival. Youngbae glances up briefly, then back down at his phone as he shakes his head in disapproval, resuming whatever he was focused on before. 

After a few seconds of uncomfortable silence — on Jiyong's end, because Youngbae isn't even paying attention to him — the latter tucks his phone away and finally gives his miserable friend the time of day. "Sushi sound good?" He asks.

"Nothing sounds good," Jiyong replies wistfully. 

"But you love sushi," Youngbae challenges, raising an eyebrow in his direction. 

Jiyong opens his mouth to object, but nothing properly miserable sounding comes to mind, so he shuts his mouth a moment later. This, apparently, is all the confirmation the younger needs, because suddenly he's standing up with that stupid, bordering _bragging_ smirk. Jiyong furrows his brows in defeat, trailing behind Youngbae like the pathetic loser that he is so that he can be paraded around like a caged animal. 

Except that isn't what happens. Youngbae is surprisingly subtle, able to blend them into the background with ease. With their caps pulled down low and their painfully bland clothes, they go seeming unnoticed into the restaurant, which is a relief, because the last thing he needed was to be bombarded with questions in his current mental state, or to have Youngbae dragged down further with him. 

They place their orders in relative silence, and for a second, Jiyong is dumb enough to believe that this _isn't_ an intervention, that his good buddy just wanted to hang out with him before he gets caught up in the whirlwind of preparing for a comeback. 

He's wrong. 

"Ji, we need to talk..." Jiyong, being the child that he is, let's out pained groan and puts his head down on the table. His immaturity earns him a kick and he jolts back up. "I'm serious, people are worried about you."

" _You_ are worried about me, _people_ are waiting excitedly on the edges of their seats for me to become a washed up mess and die of alcohol poisoning," he corrects bitterly. 

"So what, you're trying to prove them right?" Youngbae asks, tone hushed but urgent.

Jiyong pauses to consider, before finally nodding. "Yeah, actually, I am." 

It's Youngbae's turn to groan now, as he rubs his face with frustration. There was no way around it, Jiyong was _trying_ to be difficult, _trying_ to push him over the edge until he abandoned him like all the others had. Luckily, he was strong willed, and he wasn't giving up without a fight. 

"Okay, so everyone else want to see you fail, and _you_ want to see _yourself_ fail, but what about me? What about the _years_ of teamwork and friendship we have? Is that really worth throwing away over a stupid little scandal?"

"I never said that!" Jiyong backpedaled, blatantly offended, "and this isn't a 'little scandal', either."

"It was one blunt, one time," he argued, rolling his eyes. 

"Which I didn't smoke on purpose."

"Exactly!"

"But —" Jiyong started, face falling ever so slightly, mood dimming. "But it cost me my career. Like you said, years of teamwork, gone. Over a mistake."

Youngbae feels the impact of his words in his very core, and for once, he doesn't have a solid argument against his self-pity. He's lost his footing, feels like they're both drowning in a sea of the other's emotions. 

"It cost me more than my career," Jiyong continues, softer this time. "It cost me my livelihood. I have nothing going for me, I can't make music, but I can't return to regular, non-idol life either. This is the first time I've left my house without being assaulted with questions about why I did it, or how it feels to be a city drug addict, or to have let down everyone in my life. It never stops."

Youngbae takes a deep breath, looking away from his friend. Something brews inside of him that he can't quite place — pity? Guilt? — and for the first time, he wishes he could switch places with him, take his pain for him. He'd spent all this time greedily grateful that it wasn't him who'd lost it all in a scandal, when he'd spent no time putting himself in Joyong's shoes. It was so easy to dismiss it as him getting what he'd had coming to him, a punishment for being so careless, that he'd forgetting that this could have happened to him just as easily. That if he'd taken that cigarette, he'd be the one watching as all his hardworking slipped away. Suddenly, he feels sick to his stomachs, but his drive to help his best friend is stronger than ever. 

Their waiter brings them food, and the two of them seep in silence a little longer, both eating but neither enjoying their food. Youngbae is lost in thoughts of what they could do when his conversation with YG pops into his mind.

"Maybe," Youngbae clears his throat, causing Jiyong to look up at him, "maybe you should get away for a while, until the dust settles, y'know?"

Jiyong looks at him skeptically. "I don't think a week in Jeju will fix my problems."

"More like an extended vacation — to The States, or somewhere far enough away that you can escape the public eye without having to hide away in your apartment for the rest of your life."

"It sounds an awful lot like you're trying to get rid of me."

Youngbae ignore that in favor of elaborating on his plan, explaining to him that YG would be more than happy to take him back on as a producer when everything settles, and that maybe he can work his way back up from there. Jiyong still seems skeptical, however, so Youngbae ends up sighing in defeat. "It's just something to consider..."

—

Jiyong does consider it.

At first, he hates the idea — loathes it, even — his gut instinct is to call it cowardly, to dismiss it at simply running away from his problems. He's always been stubborn, so he stands strong on his opinion for a solid week until it starts to catch up with him, all the insults thrown his way, all the negativity surrounding his career, and as they days drag on, the thought of running away becomes more and more appealing. 

Youngbae insists he's not running away. He calls it damage control — if he isn't spotted out in public, people won't have any excuse to write about him and the public will slowly but surely forget about his scandal. Then, when another idol gets caught up in a scandal and snatches the publics attention, he'll quietly come out from hiding and begin to work as a producer until he reestablishes his credibility. It actually isn't such a bad plan.

Jiyong does bring up that he doesn't need to leave the country to go into hiding, but Youngbae reminds him that his only other choice is hiding away in his apartment for several months, and being able to live his live normally is a much more appealing option, even if it means he has to do it in unfamiliar territory. Ultimately, Jiyong makes up his mind to leave, if reluctantly, and other people (namely Youngbae, with help from the company) plan the rest for him.

Youngbae settles on LA for him, because he somehow has a connection there by the name of Seungri. When he questions how that 'connection' came to be, Youngbae shrugs and says Seungri 'knows everyone', which explains nothing. He'd be concerned, too, if this Seungri character wasn't offering to find him an apartment in the city at no extra cost. Jiyong decides not to question a good thing for now. Seungri could be a high-class gangster for all he cared, Jiyong's main priority was that he have a place to go when he lands in LAX.

The next week is dedicated to packing Jiyong's stuff and sending it overseas. Jiyong can't help but feel like everything is going much too quickly, and for this being his life, he knows shockingly little about what is actually going on, but Youngbae reassures him that everything will be fine, and Jiyong isn't trying to disagree with his only remaining friend, so he goes along with it.

Several weeks later, Jiyong has said his goodbyes and is finally stepping off of the plane and onto American soil, suddenly strict by how uneasy he is when he's hit by all the telltale signs he's in America now, from strict airport security, to quickly spoken English, and he just barely manages to make it out alive in the bustle of it all. 

He gathers his suitcases and scans the place for Seungri, letting out a sigh of relief when he spots a man holding a sign with his name on it — romanized. He approaches cautiously, worried he somehow has the wrong person, because the sign holder doesn't look like the high class gangster he was expecting.

His identity is confirmed when he spots Jiyong and all but bounds up to him like a puppy, immediately taking one of his bags and grinning at him like he's some long-lost friend, reunited for the first time in years.

"You must be Ji! I'm Seungri, it's nice to finally meet you," the stranger, Seungri, greets in perfect English. Thanks to YG, he was forced to learn the language, so he understands him, but he knows his words are going to come out with an accent. 

"Uh, yeah," he murmurs, looking away nervously. He can't help but feel shy under the other man's gaze. "It's Kwon Jiyong, but yeah... Nice to meet you."

He's relieved that Seungri seems to understand him perfectly, because he had worried language might be a barrier. At least that's one worry off the list.

"I'm just supposed to take you to your new apartment, but I like you, so I think I'll stick around to help you adjust," he explains, leading them out of the airport and to the car he has waiting outside. It's sleek and black and he wonders how someone like Seungri could afford such a thing, but says nothing because he's far more concerned that he'll be struck with Seungri for his entire stay. 

"Um, thanks?" Jiyong replies, not wanted to sound ungrateful, even if the idea of several months with this over energetic (albeit nice) stranger made him nervous. They climb into his car and drive off, Jiyong trying to distract himself with the city while Seungri rambles on about his favorite takeout place and how they should celebrate Jiyong's 'perfect getaway' with it — Seungri makes it sound like he's some exciting criminal on the run, so he tunes him out until they arrive.

"Here we are! Isn't it beautiful? — and the best part is that I live here too!" As they climb out of the car, Seungri explains that he had to pulls some strings with his landlord to get him an apartment, followed by something about how he 'can be pretty convincing', but Jiyong is distracted by the time they step into the lobby. 

To Seungri's credit, the man has nice taste. It's beautiful, the whole place clean and modern, nothing like the slums he imagines where involved in living _'lowkey'_. As Seungri goes to fetch his key, something else catches his eye — someone else, actually. 

Stepping off of the elevator is a tall, handsome man, and Jiyong feels his breath get caught in his throat. Jiyong couldn't be more obvious, because the man catches him staring, and offers a friendly 'hello' as he passes, obviously too busy for small talk. Jiyong barely manages to return the greeting before the other steps out, leaving Jiyong feeling breathless. 

Seungri returns a beat later, smiling broadly as he hands Jiyong his key card. "Welcome to your new life," he says grandly, then laughs to himself as if what he said was funny, "Come on." 

Jiyong smiles back. He thinks he'll like it here.

**Author's Note:**

> By the way, there will be more single dad! Seunghyun in the next chapter. In the meantime, I need to name his daughter lol.


End file.
